The D1 Meet'n'Greet

[Nystul]

If I beat normal I'll be continuing. So far I have made it into Cats once out of 10+ attempts. About half the deaths were due to exploding barrels! (I could skip them, but the satisfaction of a full clear is worth more than the loss of 1 character in an attempt for me).

Barrel deaths are almost completely avoidable. Just make sure you have over 17 health and there is only one barrel next to you when you break it, if at all possible. IM solo mages are really tough, though. I've mostly avoided playing them, because they are so reliant on finding a purifying spring. If you can find a purifying spring before you run out of resources, and then stay alive long enough to find a mana shield book, the second half of the game might actually be somewhat easy.

But it would also be somewhat frustrating: kill a couple monsters, climb up 7 levels to the purifying spring, click it a hundred times, climb down 7 levels, kill a couple monsters... The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to stick with a warrior or rogue.

I always hit all of the chests and barrels to get the goodies, but I don't really consider it part of a full clear. Full clear means killing all of the bad guys. Barrels on levels with skeletons I might consider part of a full clear.:) Telekinesis on chests might be a good idea if you have it and a purifying spring, to avoid the buggy fire arrows or nova traps.